How did Europeans explore and establish settlements in the Americas? Europeans explored and claimed that more and more land was there. They had to make relations with people who were already in the americas and try to find a way to conquer them and claim that land theirs.
Full Answer
What was the first European settlement in North America?
European Colonization of North America. The invasion of the North American continent and its peoples began with the Spanish in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida, then British in 1587 when the Plymouth Company established a settlement that they dubbed Roanoke in present-day Virginia. This first settlement failed mysteriously and in 1606, the London ...
What is European colonization of the Americas?
Colonialism portal. The European colonization of the Americas describes the history of the settlement and establishment of control of the continents of the Americas by most of the naval powers of Western Europe.
How did European exploration and colonization affect the Americas?
European discovery and colonization had disastrous effects on the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and their societies.
How did the conquistadors colonize Europe?
Spanish conquistador style armour. Systematic European colonization began in 1492, when a Spanish expedition headed by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sailed west to find a new trade route to the Far East but inadvertently landed in what came to be known to Europeans as the "New World".
How did Europe discover America?
The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he stumbled upon the Americas.
How did European settlers transform the Americas?
The Europeans brought technologies, ideas, plants, and animals that were new to America and would transform peoples' lives: guns, iron tools, and weapons; Christianity and Roman law; sugarcane and wheat; horses and cattle. They also carried diseases against which the Indian peoples had no defenses.
Why did European countries explore America?
Historians generally recognize three motives for European exploration and colonization in the New World: God, gold, and glory.
How did exploration of the Americas lead to settlement?
European explorations eventually led to the European colonization of North America. European countries began to claim territories in North America to expand their influence in the new lands. Slowly, the countries began to settle these areas to protect their newly claimed territories.
How did European exploration impact the Americas?
Overview. Colonization ruptured many ecosystems, bringing in new organisms while eliminating others. The Europeans brought many diseases with them that decimated Native American populations. Colonists and Native Americans alike looked to new plants as possible medicinal resources.
What were the effects of European exploration?
European explorations led to the Columbian Exchange and an increase in international trade. European nations competed for colonies. The European economy underwent major changes. Today, as in the days of mercantilism, some groups want to restrict global trade to protect certain jobs and industries from competition.
Why did the first European settlers come to America?
European nations came to the Americas to increase their wealth and broaden their influence over world affairs. The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States.
Which was a major cause of European exploration?
Explorers saw the chance to earn fame and glory, as well as wealth. As new lands were discovered, nations wanted to claim the lands' riches for themselves. A final motive for exploration was the desire to spread Christianity beyond Europe. Both Protestant and Catholic nations were eager to make new converts.
Who was the first European to discover America?
Five hundred years before Columbus, a daring band of Vikings led by Leif Eriksson set foot in North America and established a settlement.
When did European settlers come to America?
The invasion of the North American continent and its peoples began with the Spanish in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida, then British in 1587 when the Plymouth Company established a settlement that they dubbed Roanoke in present-day Virginia.
When did the exploration of America start?
1492Traditionally, the age of exploration in America begins in 1492 with the first voyage of Christopher Columbus. Those expeditions began with a desire to find another way to the East, where the Europeans had created a lucrative trade route in spices and other goods.
Who were the first European settlers in America?
The first Europeans to arrive in North America -- at least the first for whom there is solid evidence -- were Norse, traveling west from Greenland, where Erik the Red had founded a settlement around the year 985.
How did European immigrants impact colonial society?
They arrived in very different social and economic circumstances, bringing preconceptions and cultural practices from their homelands. Each wave of migrants changed the character of the colony—its size, composition, and economy—and brought new opportunities and new challenges to the people already there.
What happened after the European settlement?
Lifestyle After Colonisation European settlement had a severe and devastating impact on Indigenous people. Their dispossession of the land, exposure to new diseases and involvement in violent conflict, resulted in the death of a vast number of the Aboriginal peoples.
What was the name of the area where the Native Americans lived before the arrival of the Europeans?
People lived in the area called New England long before the first Europeans arrived. The lives of these Native Americans—part of the Algonquian language group—would be forever changed by the arrival of English colonists.
When did the French and Dutch start colonizing New York?
From there, the French founded Quebec in 1608, then the Dutch started a colony in 1609 in present-day New York. While Native Americans resisted European efforts to amass land and power during this period, they struggled to do so while also fighting new diseases introduced by the Europeans and the slave trade.
What was the area before John Smith's voyage?
This map was created by National Geographic, for the book Voices from Colonial America: Maryland , 1643-1776, to demonstrate what this area was like before John Smith’s voyages as well as the routes of his voyage. Until John Smith's exploratory voyages of the Chesapeake Bay in 1608 and 1609 opened the region to European settlement, the land belonged to the Piscataways, Choptanks, and other Algonquian peoples, as it had for thousands of years. Choice land on the eastern and western shores of the bay was snapped up by colonists and turned into large English farms.
Where did the Spanish invade?
The invasion of the North American continent and its peoples began with the Spanish in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida, then British in 1587 when the Plymouth Company established a settlement that they dubbed Roanoke in present-day Virginia. This first settlement failed mysteriously and in 1606, the London Company established a presence in what would become Jamestown, Virginia. From there, the French founded Quebec in 1608, then the Dutch started a colony in 1609 in present-day New York. While Native Americans resisted European efforts to amass land and power during this period, they struggled to do so while also fighting new diseases introduced by the Europeans and the slave trade.
Which countries established colonies in North America?
Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands established colonies in North America. Each country had different motivations for colonization and expectations about the potential benefits. Grades. 3 - 12+.
Who was the first person to map the Chesapeake Bay?
Starting in 1607, Captain John Smith set about exploring and describing the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. This map, published in 1612, would become the primary cartographic resource on the region for nearly seven decades.
Who created the Maryland map?
This map was created by National Geographic, for the book Voices from Colonial America: Maryland, 1643-1776, to demonstrate what this area was like before John Smith’s voyages as well as the routes of his voyage.
Which country founded the colonies in the Americas?
France. France founded colonies in the Americas: in eastern North America (which had not been colonized by Spain north of Florida ), a number of Caribbean islands (which had often already been conquered by the Spanish or depopulated by disease), and small coastal parts of South America.
What countries were involved in the colonization of the Americas?
During this period of time, several European empires —primarily Spain, Portugal, Britain, and France —began to explore and claim the natural resources and human capital of the Americas, resulting in the displacement and disestablishment of some Indigenous Nations, and the establishment of several settler-colonial states.
Why did the population of the Americas drop?
After European contact, the native population of the Americas plummeted by an estimated 80% (from around 50 million in 1492 to eight million in 1650), mostly as the result of outbreaks of Old World disease.
Why did the Dutch want independence?
The Netherlands had been part of the Spanish Empire, due to the inheritance of Charles V of Spain. Many Dutch people converted to Protestantism and sought their political independence from Spain. They were a seafaring nation and built a global empire in regions where the Portuguese had originally explored. In the Dutch Golden Age, it sought colonies. In the Americas, the Dutch conquered the northeast of Brazil in 1630, where the Portuguese had built sugar cane plantations worked by black slave labor from Africa. Prince Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen became the administrator of the colony (1637–43), building a capital city and royal palace, fully expecting the Dutch to retain control of this rich area. As the Dutch had in Europe, it tolerated the presence of Jews and other religious groups in the colony. After Maurits departed in 1643, the Dutch West India Company took over the colony, until it was lost to the Portuguese in 1654. The Dutch retained some territory in Dutch Guiana, now Suriname. The Dutch also seized islands in the Caribbean that Spain had originally claimed but had largely abandoned, including Sint Maarten in 1618, Bonaire in 1634, Curaçao in 1634, Sint Eustatius in 1636, Aruba in 1637, some of which remain in Dutch hands and retain Dutch cultural traditions.
How did the colonization of the Americas affect the Caribbean?
According to scientists from University College London, the colonization of the Americas by Europeans killed so much of the indigenous population that it resulted in climate change and global cooling. Some contemporary scholars also attribute significant indigenous population losses in the Caribbean to the widespread practice of slavery and deadly forced labor in gold and silver mines. Historian, Andrés Reséndez, supports this claim and argues that indigenous populations were smaller previous estimations and "a nexus of slavery, overwork and famine killed more Indians in the Caribbean than smallpox, influenza and malaria."
What was Columbus' first island?
Columbus's first two voyages (1492–93) reached the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and various other Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico and Cuba.
Why was the rapid rate at which Europe grew in wealth and power unforeseeable in the early 15th century?
The rapid rate at which Europe grew in wealth and power was unforeseeable in the early 15th century because it had been preoccupied with internal wars and it was slowly recovering from the loss of its population which was caused by the Black Death. The strength of the Turkish Ottoman Empire held on trade routes to Asia prompted Western European monarchs to search for alternatives, resulting in the voyages of Christopher Columbus and the accidental re-discovery of the " New World ".
What was the major incentive in the burst of European exploration that began in the fifteenth century?
Trade was the major incentive in the burst of European exploration that began in the fifteenth century. Once European countries, particularly Italy, had developed trade relations with the Middle East (a vast region of the world encompassing North Africa and Southwest Asia), goods from Asia were in high demand. European governments began to sponsor navigators (people who set the courses for ships) to explore new routes to the mysterious regions beyond the borders of Europe. The Portuguese were the first to find routes around the Horn of Africa (a peninsula in northeastern Africa) to India in 1498. Portugal then reaped huge profits in trade in Asia and Africa.
What did France do to establish colonies in the New World?
France, too, wished to find trade routes to Asia and establish colonies in the New World. In 1524, the French king sponsored an expedition to the New World seeking the elusive Northwest Passage. The expedition was led by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano (c. 1485–c. 1528), who explored the East Coast of the present-day United States from what is now North Carolina up to Nova Scotia, Canada. He reported on the New York and Narragansett Bays upon his return. From 1534 to 1541, Jacques Cartier (1491–1557) made three voyages to Canada, discovering the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River.
What did the Spanish find in the New World?
The first Spaniards to arrive in the New World found gold and silver there. News of possible riches brought many more explorers and Spanish conquistadors (conquerors) to the American continents in the first half of the sixteenth century. In 1499 and 1500, Italian navigator Amerigo de Vespucci (1454–1512) led a Spanish-sponsored expedition that first discovered the mainland of the American continents; the name “America” is derived from his name. In 1513, Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1475–1519) became the first European to find the eastern shores of the Pacific Ocean. That same year, Juan Ponce de León (1460–1521) led the first European expedition into Florida , which he claimed for Spain. From 1519 to 1521, Hernán Cortés (1485–1547) explored central Mexico and conquered the powerful Aztecs, taking over their principal city and establishing the headquarters of New Spain in Mexico City.
How long have Native Americans been living in the United States?
Native Americans have been living in and exploring the vast territory that makes up the present-day United States for tens of thousands of years. Many tribes traded far and wide and had a vast knowledge of the continent's geography. The first known European explorers to arrive on the continent, Vikings from Scandinavia led by Leif Eriksson (c. 970–1020), appeared around 1000 C.E. and established a temporary settlement in the present-day Canadian province of Newfoundland. After that, there were no known European explorations of the New World until the Spanish-sponsored Italian navigator Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) arrived in 1492.
What did Columbus call the West Indies?
Thinking he had arrived in Asia, he called the islands the “ West Indies ” and their people, “Indians.”. Columbus went to explore and create colonies for Spain in the islands. Italian explorer John Cabot (c. 1450–c. 1499) was living in England when he learned of Columbus's voyages.
What did Jacques Cartier discover?
From 1534 to 1541, Jacques Cartier (1491–1557) made three voyages to Canada, discovering the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River.
Which country was the leader in the exploration of the southern part of the United States?
Spain played the leading role in exploration of vast areas of what is now the southern section of the United States. In 1527 and 1528, Pánfilo de Narváez (c. 1478–1528) led a disastrous expedition to Florida and the Texas shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico.
Which European country was the first to colonize the Americas?
Lesson Summary. Spain was the first European nation to begin colonizing the Americas, starting with Christopher Columbus' discoveries in 1492. Spain was the first European nation of the time to begin exploring North America, mapping out Florida, but their real fame came from defeating the Aztecs of Mexico in 1521.
Why did the Dutch explore the Americas?
Like the French, the Dutch were originally exploring the Americas to find a quicker route to the Pacific Ocean, and thus the trade routes of China. They hired the English explorer Henry Hudson in 1609, who ended up at Cape Cod in what is now Massachusetts. Hudson continued along the coast until running into modern-day New York. Later voyages to map the area established it as part of the Dutch Empire under the name New Netherlands.
How did Spain become wealthy?
Spain became instantly wealthy, profiting from the gold, silver, spices, flowers, foods, and minerals of the New World. The treasure ships sailing back to Spain, overflowing with goods, were enough to convince the other European nations to start colonizing the lands north of Spanish control.
What were the French interests in the Americas?
For most of the early colonial period, the French interests in the Americas were in fur trapping and trading with the indigenous people, although they also hunted for gold and other treasures.
What was Hudson's first trading fort?
On the island of Manhattan, first surveyed by Hudson, the Dutch built a trading fort called New Amsterdam in 1625.
What was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas?
In 1606, the British got serious and King James I formed the Virginia Company to settle North America. It did so in 1607 at Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Jamestown, located in Virginia, was beset by disease and starvation.
Why did Spain sponsor Christopher Columbus?
The Spanish kingdom, brand new at the time, sponsored the voyage of a man named Christopher Columbus in 1492. Spain was trying to find a new route to China, because nations like Portugal and cities like Venice already had the good routes around Africa and across the Asian continent.
Columbus, Portugal, & The Spanish Conquest
France & The Netherlands
- The colony of New France was founded in modern-day Canada by the French explorer Jacques Cartier (l. 1491-1557) in 1534. France would also claim land holdings in the regions of modern-day South America, the Caribbean, the state of Louisiana, and elsewhere. Cartier's mission, like Columbus', was to navigate a maritime passage to Asia and return to France with gold. On his fir…
Early English Colonies
- England, impressed by the wealth Spain was able to acquire from the New World, considered establishing their own colonies there but, first, found it easier to have privateers (state-sponsored pirates) stop Spanish vessels returning from the Americas and seize their cargo, among them Sir Francis Drake(l. c. 1540-1596), known to the Spanish as “the D...
Conclusion
- The Jamestown colony barely survived the first few years, losing 80% of its population in only a few months, primarily because those who made up the expedition were either upper-class aristocrats who refused to work for their food or lower-class laborers who had no skill in farming. The colony was saved first by Captain John Smith (l. 1580-1631), a soldier, sailor, and adventure…
Overview
During the Age of Exploration, a large scale European colonization of the Americas took place between about 1492 and 1800. Although the Norse had explored and colonized areas of the North Atlantic, colonizing Greenland and creating a short term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland circa 1000 CE, the later and more well-known wave by the European powers is what formally constitutes as beginning of colonization, involving both the continents of North America
Overview of Western European powers
Norse explorers are the first known Europeans to set foot on what is now North America. Norse journeys to Greenland and Canada are supported by historical and archaeological evidence. The Norsemen established a colony in Greenland in the late 10th century, and lasted until the mid 15th century, with court and parliament assemblies (þing) taking place at Brattahlíð and a bishop located at Garðar. The remains of a settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada…
Christianization
Beginning with the first wave of European colonization, the religious discrimination, persecution, and violence toward the Indigenous peoples' native religions was systematically perpetrated by the European Christian colonists and settlers from the 15th-16th centuries onwards.
During the Age of Discovery and the following centuries, the Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires were the most active in attempting to convert the Indigenous peoples of the Americas t…
Religion and immigration
Roman Catholics were the first major religious group to immigrate to the New World, as settlers in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of Portugal and Spain, and later, France in New France. No other religion was tolerated and there was a concerted effort to convert indigenous peoples and black slaves to Catholicism. The Catholic Church established three offices of the Spanish Inquisition, in Mexico City; Lima, Peru; and Cartagena de Indias in Colombia to maintain religious …
Disease and indigenous population loss
The European lifestyle included a long history of sharing close quarters with domesticated animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, dogs and various domesticated fowl, from which many diseases originally stemmed. In contrast to the indigenous people, the Europeans had developed a richer endowment of antibodies. The large-scale contact with Europeans after 1492 introduced Eurasian germs to the indigenous people of the Americas.
Slavery
Indigenous population loss following European contact directly led to Spanish explorations beyond the Caribbean islands they initially claimed and settled in the 1490s, since they required a labor force to both produce food and to mine gold. Slavery was not unknown in Indigenous societies. With the arrival of European colonists, enslavement of Indigenous peoples "became commodified, expanded in unexpected ways, and came to resemble the kinds of human trafficki…
Colonization and race
Throughout the South American hemisphere, there were three large regional sources of populations: Native Americans, arriving Europeans, and forcibly transported Africans. The mixture of these cultures impacted the ethnic makeup that predominates in the hemisphere's largely independent states today. The term to describe someone of mixed European and indigenous ancestry is mestizo while the term to describe someone of mixed European and African ancestry is
Impact of colonial land ownership on long-term development
Eventually, most of the Western Hemisphere came under the control of Western European governments, leading to changes to its landscape, population, and plant and animal life. In the 19th century over 50 million people left Western Europe for the Americas. The post-1492 era is known as the period of the Columbian exchange, a dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including slaves), ideas, and communicable disease between …